The following is a list of ice hockey players from Germany who have played or currently play in the National Hockey League (NHL).

As of February 2025, there were seven Germans playing in the NHL, or roughly 1% of players. Orest Romashyna was drafted by the Boston Bruins with the third overall pick in the 1963 NHL amateur draft, the joint-highest a German player has ever been drafted (sharing the honor with Leon Draisaitl and Tim Stützle). In the process, Romashyna became the first German ever drafted, but never played a game in the league. The first German to appear in a game was Udo Kießling, suiting up for the Minnesota North Stars. His first and only appearance came in a game on 13 March 1982.

The following year, Uwe Krupp was drafted by the Buffalo Sabres with the 124th overall pick. Krupp would become the first German to have a substantial NHL career, appearing in 729 games on the roster of Buffalo, the New York Islanders, Quebec Nordiques, Colorado Avalanche, Detroit Red Wings, and Atlanta Thrashers between the 1986–87 and the 2002–03 seasons. Krupp was also the first German to win the Stanley Cup, scoring the game-winning goal for the Avalanche in Game 4 of the 1996 Stanley Cup Final. The goal, coming in the third overtime period, clinched the win and the series sweep. Krupp won the championship one more time, the second with the Detroit Red Wings in 2002, to become the first German to win it twice. However, Krupp's name only appears on the cup once, as he only played eight games that season and did not appear in the finals. Another German was guaranteed the cup after Christian Ehrhoff of the Vancouver Canucks and Dennis Seidenberg's Boston Bruins met in the 2011 finals. Despite being the third German to win the Stanley Cup (after Krupp and Seidenberg), Tom Kühnhackl became the first player to take the trophy to Germany following his 2016 win with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Nico Sturm lifted the Cup with the Colorado Avalanche in 2022 and the Florida Panthers in 2025, joining Krupp and Kühnhackl as two-time winners.

Olaf Kölzig is perhaps the league's best goaltender from Germany. He became the first German to win a league award, taking home the Vezina Trophy as the league's best goaltender for the 1999–2000 season and later the King Clancy Memorial Trophy for his leadership qualities and humanitarian efforts in 2005–06. In total, Kölzig played in 719 NHL games (all but eight with the Washington Capitals) with an overall 303–297–87 record, a 2.71 GAA, a .906 sv%, and 35 shutouts during his career which spanned the 1990s and 2000s. Despite his accomplishments, Kölzig never won a Stanley Cup. Philipp Grubauer was the first German goaltender to win that honor when he was crowned champion with the Washington Capitals in 2018.

The 2010s saw a surge of German draft picks with a German player selected in every draft from 2014 to 2023. The 2018 and 2019 entry drafts marked the first time that a German player was taken in the first round in back-to-back years. The Ottawa Senators drafted Tim Stützle third overall in 2020 entry draft to extend the streak to three consecutive drafts. Lukas Reichel was also drafted in the first round that year, making 2020 the first-ever draft in which more than one German player was taken in the first round.

Leon Draisaitl was drafted third overall in 2014. With his debut, he became the 28th German to ever play in the NHL and quickly became the best German player in league history. He holds various records including: most goals in a season with 55, most assists with 76, and most points with 128. He is the first, and only German player so far, to have a 100+ point season and the first German player to win the Hart Trophy, Art Ross Trophy, and the Ted Lindsay Award and the first German to win more than one award in a single season. With a goal and assist against the Winnipeg Jets in April 2021, Draisaitl became the all-time top German points scorer, surpassing the previous record held by Marco Sturm who tallied 487 points in 938 games. In December 2025, Draisaitl became the first German player and the 103rd player ever to hit 1000 points.

Players

Stats include regular season games and points only. Active players currently playing in the NHL are in bold.

All-time statistics

Rank Name First year Final Year GP Goals Assists Points Stanley Cups 1Leon Draisaitl 2015 790 399 557 956 2Marco Sturm 1997 2012 938 242 245 487 3Jochen Hecht 1998 2013 833 186 277 463 4Christian Ehrhoff 2003 2016 789 74 265 339 5Tim Stützle 2020 366 114 209 323 6Uwe Krupp 1986 2003 729 69 212 281 1996, 2002 7Dennis Seidenberg 2002 2018 859 44 207 251 2011 8Marcel Goc 2004 2015 636 75 113 188 9Moritz Seider 2021 327 29 150 179 10JJ Peterka 2021 237 66 82 148 11Tobias Rieder 2014 2021 478 64 81 145 12Brian Glynn 1987 1994 431 25 79 104 13Nico Sturm 2018 331 46 46 92 2022, 2025 14Dominik Kahun 2018 2021 186 34 49 83 15Uli Hiemer 1984 1987 143 19 54 73 16Christoph Schubert 2005 2010 315 25 47 72 17Lukas Reichel 2021 169 20 34 54 18Tom Kühnhackl 2015 2019 232 18 36 54 2016, 2017 19Korbinian Holzer 2010 2020 206 6 21 27 20Alexander Sulzer 2008 2014 131 7 15 22 21Stefan Ustorf 1995 1997 54 7 10 7 22Olaf Kölzig 1989 2009 719 0 17 17 23Sven Butenschön 1997 2006 140 2 12 14 24Jason Holland 1996 2004 81 4 5 9 25John Tripp 2002 2004 43 2 7 9 26Ron Fischer 1981 1983 18 0 7 7 27Philipp Grubauer 2012 370 0 6 6 2018 28Thomas Greiss 2007 2023 368 0 4 4 29Jan Benda 1997 1998 9 0 3 3 30Chris Schmidt 2002 2003 10 0 2 2 31Karl Friesen 1986 1987 4 0 1 1 32Mike Heidt 1983 1984 6 0 1 1 33Lean Bergmann 2019 2021 13 0 1 1 34Erich Goldmann 1999 2000 1 0 0 0 35Udo Kiessling 1982 1983 1 0 0 0 36Timo Pielmeier 2010 2011 1 0 0 0 37Maksymilian Szuber 2023 2024 1 0 0 0 38Niklas Treutle 2015 2016 2 0 0 0 39Michel Larocque 2000 2001 3 0 0 0 40Dimitri Pätzold 2007 2008 3 0 0 0 41Marcel Müller 2010 2011 3 0 0 0 42David Wolf 2014 2015 3 0 0 0 43Rob Zepp 2014 2015 10 0 0 0 44Marc Michaelis 2020 2021 15 0 0 0 45Sascha Goc 2000 2002 22 0 0 0

Draftees The following German players were selected in the NHL draft but never played in the league.

Name Year Position Team Orest Romashyna 1963 3rd Boston Bruins Bernhard Englbrecht 1978 196th Atlanta Flames Gerd Truntschka 1978 200th St. Louis Blues Daniel Held 1980 105th Philadelphia Flyers Dieter Hegen 1981 46th Montreal Canadiens Jayson Meyer 1983 94th Buffalo Sabres Greg Evtushevski 1983 125th New Jersey Devils Miroslav Maly 1984 76th Minnesota North Stars Peter Romberg 1985 206th Calgary Flames Milos Vanik 1987 225th Washington Capitals Andreas Lupzig 1988 239th Chicago Blackhawks Michael Pohl 1988 243rd New Jersey Devils Torsten Kienass 1991 260th Boston Bruins Marc Seliger 1993 251st Washington Capitals Frank Appel 1994 123rd Calgary Flames Kai Fischer 1996 160th Colorado Avalanche Robert Francz 1997 151st Phoenix Coyotes Robert Müller 2001 275th Washington Capitals Stefan Schauer 2001 162nd Ottawa Senators Alexander Sulzer 2003 92nd Nashville Predators Patrick Ehelechner 2003 139th San Jose Sharks Kai Hospelt 2003 216th San Jose Sharks Eduard Lewandowski 2003 242nd Phoenix Coyotes Darin Olver 2004 36th New York Rangers Philip Gogulla 2005 48th Buffalo Sabres Felix Schütz 2006 117th Buffalo Sabres Constantin Braun 2006 164th Los Angeles Kings Justin Krueger 2006 213th Carolina Hurricanes Sebastian Stefaniszin 2007 98th Anaheim Ducks Denis Reul 2007 130th Boston Bruins Robert Dietrich 2007 174th Nashville Predators Jerome Flaake 2008 130th Toronto Maple Leafs Dominik Bielke 2009 207th San Jose Sharks Mirko Höfflin 2010 151st Chicago Blackhawks Konrad Abeltshauser 2010 163rd San Jose Sharks David Elsner 2010 194th Nashville Predators Marcel Noebels 2011 118th Philadelphia Flyers Frederik Tiffels 2015 167th Pittsburgh Penguins Manuel Wiederer 2016 150th San Jose Sharks Leon Gawanke 2017 136th Winnipeg Jets Dominik Bokk 2018 25th St. Louis Blues Justin Schütz 2018 170th Florida Panthers Luca Münzenberger 2021 90th Edmonton Oilers Håkon Hänelt 2021 151st Washington Capitals Nikita Quapp 2021 187th Carolina Hurricanes Julian Lutz 2022 43rd Arizona Coyotes Kevin Bicker 2023 147th Detroit Red Wings Arno Tiefensee 2023 157th Dallas Stars Norwin Panocha 2023 205th Buffalo Sabres Maxim Schäfer 2025 96th Washington Capitals Julius Sumpf 2025 98th Chicago Blackhawks David Lewandowski 2025 117th Edmonton Oilers Carlos Händel 2025 177th Montreal Canadiens Tobias Krestan 2026 209th Los Angeles Kings

Non-draftees The following German players were not selected in the NHL draft, but signed NHL contracts. These players have not made an NHL appearance. This list may be incomplete.

Name Team Joined Previous Ref. Josh Samanski Edmonton Oilers 2 April 2025 Straubing Tigers (DEL) Wojciech Stachowiak Tampa Bay Lightning 22 May 2025 ERC Ingolstadt (DEL)

Coaches Marco Sturm became the first German-born and raised head coach of an NHL team when he was hired for the position by the Boston Bruins in summer 2025. Prior to being named Boston's head coach, Sturm spent four seasons as an assistant coach with the Los Angeles Kings beginning in 2018–19 and three seasons as head coach of its American Hockey League affiliate, the Ontario Reign. Prior to Sturm, Canadian-born and raised German international Ralph Krueger coached the Edmonton Oilers and Buffalo Sabres. In signing for Boston, Sturm became only the fourth European head coach in league history and the first European to hold the position for a club for which he previously played.

Coach Team Season Regular season Postseason G W L OTL Pts Finish W L Win % Result Marco Sturm Boston Bruins 2025–26 0 0 0 0 0 TBD 0 0 TBD

See also List of NHL players List of NHL statistical leaders by country Germany national ice hockey team List of Slovaks in the NHL

References

External links NHL - All-time totals - Germany